Vietnam could face an electricity shortage of 6.6 billion kWh in 2021 and 11.8 billion kWh in 2022. The shortage could increase to 15 billion kWh in 2023.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade the reason for the shortage was due to delayed progress in 47 out of 62 power projects with capacities of more than 200MW in the Vietnam Power Master Plan VII. It was expected that the electricity sector would still meet the country’s power demand in 2020. However, there would be risks of a shortage if the demand is higher than forecast, poor water flow to hydropower reservoirs or a lack of coal and gas for electricity production. In the first half of the year, electricity consumption increased 10 percent from the same period last year because of prolonged hot weather. The power consumption was expected to continue to increase by 10 percent at year-end.-VNA